Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Slinfold
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Slinfold, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Slinfold
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a RH13 0 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Lyons Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Slinfold, whether it's the Tesco or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Rowhook last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Slinfold with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's only in that tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the BP. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Slinfold or out in Broadbridge Heath, costs more than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside the tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere the car has stopped in West Sussex.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Slinfold: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Slinfold CofE Primary School and Pre School. Near The Street, a driver tips a bottle in on that drive after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Red Lyon, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in Slinfold or the remainder of West Sussex you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Slinfold?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through the filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, maybe part way across Slinfold or coming back from Theale Copse. Once safe, pull over and turn it off — with no turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M23, under 10 miles from Slinfold, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Slinfold to the car park by Slinfold Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it is caught early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Slinfold: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped in Slinfold — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by St. Peter's Church — the van travels to your vehicle. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else we ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. A test of the car comes last, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. Not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking space at Christs Hospital or a driveway in Slinfold, that is where our engineers start it and you head off. The test before we head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Slinfold and where it is
Slinfold is a village situated in the riverside setting of the West Sussex countryside, with an elevation of around 35 metres. Slinfold lies near the villages of Rapkyns, Itchingfield, and Strood Green, and is approximately 20.5 miles from Brighton and Hove. Slinfold has a population of around 1163 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Slinfold is also within commuting distance of London, being around 32.5 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Slinfold included
AdBlue call-outs around Slinfold are passed to teams that serve the places around it — Rapkyns, Itchingfield plus Strood Green — and much of West Sussex further out, across RH postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits Slinfold, a village: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Slinfold: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed price would be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Moat.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and if it ran: each Slinfold enquiry opens with exactly that, before a quote, never after. Once those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Slinfold: still next to the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout West Sussex, Slinfold included.